How desperate is California to stop residents from moving to Texas and keep them on the Golden State’s taxpayer rolls?
Desperate enough that someone is putting up billboards there warning people they could be the target of a mass shooter if they move to the Lone Star State, apparently.
The new billboards feature a hooded figure wearing sunglasses and a minatory facial expression.
“The Texas Miracle died in Uvalde. Don’t move to Texas,” the billboards say, along with the slogan “Don’t mess with Texas” crossed out.
SF billboard warns Californians not to move to Texas by highlighting state’s weak gun laws https://t.co/jzEhMItlQ3 pic.twitter.com/TzzBqhBJmP
— ABC7 News (@abc7newsbayarea) August 26, 2022
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It’s unclear who decided that it would be fun to stand atop the graves of the 19 dead students and two slain teachers who were killed at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24.
That said, at least two of them have been erected, one in Los Angeles and one in San Francisco, according to the New York Post.
FoxPoint Media is reported to have leased the San Francisco billboard, located at the corner of Folsom and 7th Street, to advertisers. It didn’t return the Post’s request for comment, however.
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As for the “Texas miracle,” it’s a phrase originated by then-Gov. Rick Perry in 2011, as SFGate noted. The slogan refers to the Lone Star State’s ability to not only survive but thrive after the Great Recession hit in 2008.
On social media, Californians — dense as ever — seemed divided over the intent of the billboards, according to SFGate’s Andrew Charmings.
“One theory states that the ad may have come from right-leaning Texans eager to keep liberal Californians away from their voting booths,” he reported.
“Others thought that the message may have come from Californians in an attempt to slow an ‘exodus’ to Texas.”
Sure, the billboards are a false-flag operation to keep leftist Californians away from conservative Texas. I’ve heard dumber conspiracy theories that ended up being true, but not many of them.
While the billboards might just be a conversation-starter of some sort, the most likely answer to the mystery is that someone is fed up with residents moving out of high-crime, high-cost liberal states and to bastions of conservatism like Texas.
“According to a study by the Texas Real Estate Research Center, one in every 10 Texas transplants is from California. Last spring, California lost a House seat as its population declined relative to other states, while Texas gained two,” the Post noted.
And those who remain behind are fed up with soft-on-crime prosecutors. In June, San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin got recalled in a landslide. Earlier in August, another progressive district attorney, George Gascón of Los Angeles, narrowly missed having to face a recall vote after organizers fell just short of the number of valid signatures to proceed.
In addition, California has been one of the strictest states when it comes to pandemic policies, while Texas has preserved relative freedom for its residents.
Furthermore, politicians in both states have been busy taking pot-shots at one another, with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and California Gov. Gavin Newsom rattling sabers via the media.
“Earlier in the summer, Newsom took out full-page ads in three Texas newspapers blasting Abbott’s stance on abortion and gun control,” the Post noted. “Abbott himself previously campaigned with the slogan ‘Don’t California my Texas!’”
Then again, if Californians want to stem the flow of people to Texas, they ought to realize their compatriots are just going to other places — and not just in the United States.
As the Los Angeles Times reported in July, Mexico City has seen an influx of remote workers and so-called digital nomads, many from California and all taking advantage of lower prices and rent south of the border.
Maybe, then, the next set of billboards that go up will highlight cartel violence in Mexico to try to stem the outflow to there. It would be just as tasteless (and likely just as ineffective) as these have been, but at least Californians can count on the wrath of a foreign government when those start appearing — not just Greg Abbott.
All that said, whatever motivated these billboards politically doesn’t justify the shameless exploitation of the Uvalde tragedy. Whoever was behind these advertisements should be named and thoroughly shamed.
It’s one thing for governors to trade barbs via the media. It’s another thing for anonymous parties to weaponize grieving parents halfway across the country to make a point.
